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APIs · head to head

Spring Cloud Gateway vs Tink

Spring Cloud Gateway logo

Spring Cloud Gateway

APIs

API gateway built on Project Reactor for building microservices

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Tink logo

Tink

APIs

European open banking platform for account data and payment initiation

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Spring Cloud Gateway has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Spring Cloud Gateway released under the Apache 2.0 license, free and open source with no commercial tier; Tink visa owns Tink, and pay-by-bank exists to move payments off card rails, so the roadmap and pricing of the product you are using to reduce interchange are set by the company that earns the interchange.
  • They diverge on capability: Spring Cloud Gateway covers Routing, Tink covers Account data access.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Spring Cloud Gateway and Tink actually diverge.

Attributes where Spring Cloud Gateway and Tink differ
AttributeSpring Cloud GatewayTink
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelopen-sourcequote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsJava, Spring BootAPI, Web
Founded1998Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (APIs).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Spring Cloud Gateway

  • Routing
  • Path Rewriting
  • Circuit Breaker
  • Spring Boot
  • Spring Security
  • Spring Cloud
  • Java support
  • Spring Boot support

Only in Tink

  • Account data access
  • Payment initiation
  • EEA passporting
  • Categorisation
  • Account verification
  • Risk and affordability signals
  • Variable recurring payments support
  • Consent management

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Spring Cloud Gateway

  • API Developmentnot Tink
  • API Gatewaynot Tink
  • API Testingnot Tink
  • API Documentationnot Tink
  • Microservicesnot Tink

Tink

  • A European lender that needs verified income and expense data from a borrower bank account across several EEA markets under one licencenot Spring Cloud Gateway
  • A merchant offering pay-by-bank at checkout to avoid card acceptance costs on high value basketsnot Spring Cloud Gateway
  • A fintech that does not hold its own PSD2 licence and needs to operate under an authorised provider passported across the EEAnot Spring Cloud Gateway
  • A bank building an account aggregation view of a customer external accounts without negotiating with each institution individuallynot Spring Cloud Gateway

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Spring Cloud Gateway

  • Released under the Apache 2.0 license, free and open source with no commercial tier

Tink

  • Visa owns Tink, and pay-by-bank exists to move payments off card rails, so the roadmap and pricing of the product you are using to reduce interchange are set by the company that earns the interchange.
  • Coverage is Europe only, so a product serving both European and United States users runs a second aggregator with a different data model and a separate contract.
  • PSD2 connection quality varies sharply by bank, and headline connection counts hide wide differences in success rate, consent lifetime and re-authentication frequency that determine what users actually experience.
  • Consent under PSD2 expires and requires periodic re-authentication, so any product depending on continuous data access has a recurring user friction it cannot design away, and drop-off at re-consent is a real product problem.
  • Pricing is quoted with data access and payment initiation priced separately, and there is no published rate card, so small merchants cannot compare pay-by-bank economics against card acceptance without a sales process.

Pricing, plan by plan

Spring Cloud Gateway

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • Core Spring Cloud Gateway
    • Community support

Tink

On request
  • Tink Platform$undefined/year
    • Priced by product, market and volume
    • Data access and payment initiation priced separately
    • Annual commitments typical for enterprise agreements

Which should you pick?

Choose Spring Cloud Gateway if

  • You need routing.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Java, Spring Boot.
  • You also want path rewriting.
Spring Cloud Gateway review

Choose Tink if

  • You need account data access.
  • You work on API, Web.
  • You also want payment initiation.
Tink review

Questions people ask

Is Spring Cloud Gateway or Tink better?
Neither clearly leads. Spring Cloud Gateway starts at Free and Tink at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Spring Cloud Gateway or Tink?
Spring Cloud Gateway has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Spring Cloud Gateway and On request for Tink.
Does Spring Cloud Gateway or Tink run on more platforms?
Spring Cloud Gateway runs on Java, Spring Boot. Tink runs on API, Web.
Can I use Spring Cloud Gateway for free?
Yes. Spring Cloud Gateway has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Tink starts at On request.
What is Spring Cloud Gateway best used for?
Spring Cloud Gateway is most often used for api development, api gateway, api testing, api documentation. Of those, api development and api gateway are not what Tink is typically brought in for.
What can Spring Cloud Gateway do that Tink cannot?
Spring Cloud Gateway covers Routing, Path Rewriting, Circuit Breaker, Spring Boot. Tink covers Account data access, Payment initiation, EEA passporting, Categorisation.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Spring Cloud Gateway: Is Spring Cloud Gateway free?

Yes, Spring Cloud Gateway is free and open-source software. It is part of the Spring ecosystem and available through GitHub repositories with open-source dependencies like spring-cloud-starter-gateway-server-webflux and spring-cloud-starter-gateway-server-webmvc.

Source
Tink: Who owns Tink?

Visa, since 2022. That is directly relevant if you are adopting pay-by-bank specifically to reduce card costs.

Spring Cloud Gateway: What enterprise support is available for Spring Cloud Gateway?

Tanzu Spring provides optional enterprise support including Day 0 access to security patches for organizations requiring guaranteed support, but specific pricing is not published on the Spring Cloud Gateway project page.

Source
Tink: Do I need my own PSD2 licence?

No. Tink holds AIS and PIS licences from the Swedish FSA passported across the EEA, and customers can operate as its agent rather than obtaining their own authorisation.

Tink: Does Tink cover the United States?

No. It is a European platform. US coverage requires a separate provider.

Tink: How reliable are the bank connections?

It varies by institution far more than the headline count of roughly 6,000 connections suggests. Ask for per market and per bank success rates and consent lifetimes for the banks your users actually hold accounts with.

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